When Justice League came out in 2017, people were shocked at just how bad it was. Zack Snyder’s vision for the DCEU was unorthodox and certainly unexpected, but Joss Whedon’s theatrical release of the film seemed to be completely out of left field.
When fans learned that this movie was changed dramatically from Snyder’s original version, they started calling for the release of the "Snyder Cut." By the time Zack Snyder’s Justice League was actually released and fans got to see it, they quickly realized that Zack Snyder knew what he was doing the entire time. In the end, the Snyder Cut ended up fixing Justice League in some fairly major ways.
10 Completed Batman’s Unfinished Character Arc From Batman V Superman
When Batman was first introduced in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, it was clear that there was still an ongoing story being told about him. The arc did not stop when Batman v Superman ended, as everyone had the expectation that Zack Snyder would be able to see his story through.
However, Joss Whedon took out any meaningful continuations or completions of Batman’s story arc in Justice League. It was only in Zack Snyder’s cut of the film that Batman’s actual arc was restored to the movie and can be seen throughout.
9 Improved Wonder Woman As A Character In All Aspects
To say that Wonder Woman’s treatment in Justice League was unfortunate would be an understatement. There were some moments that Joss Whedon wanted to include in his theatrical version of the film that Gal Gadot even disliked so strongly that she refused to do them. In these instances, Joss Whedon ended up using her body double to replace her and just included those shots anyway.
She was treated more like a nagging obstacle or a sexualized prop than a character at any point. The Snyder Cut was able to improve Wonder Woman in all ways— starting with treating her like a real character, just as the rest of the team should be.
8 Cyborg Was Given An Entire Backstory & A Place On The Team
Much like Wonder Woman, Cyborg’s entire characterization was warped in Zack Snyder’s Justice League. However, where Wonder Woman had two entire separate movies to herself in which to correct her characterization, Cyborg had no such films.
The only movie the character has appeared in so far has been Justice League, and so the theatrical release is technically his only canon DCEU appearance. It is a complete disservice to the character to introduce him in such a fashion. The Snyder Cut improved on this massively, and it was obvious immediately.
7 The Flash Felt Like A Real Character & Actually Meant Something To The League
In the original theatrical version of Joss Whedon’s Justice League, the Flash was barely a blip on people’s radar. Like Wonder Woman, he was more of a plot device than anything else. The Flash needed to be a member of the team, and they needed the Speed Force in order to beat Steppenwolf.
In Zack Snyder’s Justice League, the Flash actually felt like a real character. More than that, he felt like a valuable member of the team, and like a hero in his own right. Before, the Flash was negligible; now, he’s arguably one of the best parts of the movie.
6 Aquaman Wasn’t A Terrible Person After All
Fans of the Justice League— and especially fans of Aquaman in particular— were fairly surprised to see how Aquaman acted in Justice League. He was bitter, angry, always swearing at people around him, and seemed to just not want to be there at all. Even worse, he treated Wonder Woman terribly, and said some truly shocking things to her.
All of that was removed in Zack Snyder’s Justice League, and Aquaman actually has his own complete mini-arc, along with the rest of the main cast. Finally, his introduction to the DCEU is as the character deserves: Completely awesome.
5 Steppenwolf Was A Fully-Developed Villain
While it didn’t seem like Darkseid was completely developed as a concept for Justice League, Steppenwolf was even worse. This once-great villain was made practically laughable by Joss Whedon as he changed around everything Snyder did for the film.
When Zack Snyder was able to fix everything up, he presented a more complete story for Steppenwolf. Finally, his character and his motivations make sense. His look was even improved, and his interactions with the Justice League were far better than before.
4 The Knightmare Sequence Continued The Snyderverse
Zack Snyder has had many plans for the DCEU from the moment he started making Man of Steel. In taking that universe away and allowing Joss Whedon to warp it so dramatically, Snyder’s original vision was essentially completely lost.
However, Snyder was able to restore his continuing vision in many ways— including the incorporation of Bruce Wayne’s visions of the Knightmare future. This retroactively improves previous references to this timeline, and proves Snyder’s larger plan was soon to pay off in a big way.
3 Everything Felt More Tonally Appropriate
Over the years, Joss Whedon has essentially boiled down his movies to a cookie-cutter formula that he cranks out film after film. As such, Justice League feels far more like The Avengers than it has any right to.
In fact, there were even reports that Joss Whedon referred to characters like Wonder Woman as “Natasha” behind the scenes constantly. Snyder was able to bring the Justice League back on the track he had set for them. The Snyder Cut felt far more tonally and thematically in line with the rest of the DCEU and the movies around it.
2 The Soundtrack & Score Were Absolutely Incredible
Originally, Junkie XL had been singed on to score Justice League, but Joss Whedon chose to replace him with Danny Elfman. While Danny Elfman previously has created some phenomenal scores and music for various Batman shows and movies, this score was never allowed to truly shine. In addition, the soundtrack was incredibly weak and used infrequently, also relying too much on callbacks to his previous Batman movie soundtracks.
By comparison, Zack Snyder’s Justice League seems to use its music almost too well. Every song is carefully selected and perfectly used, and Junkie XL’s score for the film is absolutely out of this world.
1 Proved That Zack Snyder’s Vision For The DCEU Could Succeed
While it wasn’t certain at first that Zack Snyder’s vision for the DCEU would ever actually pan out, fans were hoping the director would at least get a chance to finish telling his story. However, Joss Whedon changed everything by making his own story in Justice League.
When Zack Snyder’s Justice League came out and fans were able to see the next step in Snyder’s story in the DCEU, everything started coming together. Finally, it seemed that Snyder’s idea for the franchise would come to fruition, just in time for fans to realize it may never actually happen. Hopefully, HBO Max allows Zack Snyder to finish out his story— even if it’s not technically in the DCEU’s main canon.